Assessment of breast cancer risk among Iraqi women in 2019.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide and the leading cause of death among Iraqi women. Breast cancer cases in Iraq were found to have increased from 26.6/100,000 in 2000 to 31.5/100,000 in 2009. The present study aims to assess the established risk factors of breast cancer among Iraqi women and to highlight strategies that can aid in reducing the incidence. METHODS: 1093 Iraqi females were enrolled in this cross-sectional study by purposive sampling methods. Data collection occurred from July 2019 to September 2019. 1500 women participated in the study, and 407 women were ultimately excluded. The questionnaire was conducted as a self-administrated form in an online survey. Ethical approval was obtained from the College of Medicine in the University of Baghdad. The Gail Model risk was calculated for each woman by the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool (BCRAT), an interactive model developed by Mitchell Gail that was designed to estimate a woman's absolute risk of developing breast cancer in the upcoming five years of her life and in her lifetime. RESULTS: The ages of the participants ranged from 35 to 84 years old. The mean 5-year risk of breast cancer was found to be 1.3, with 75.3% of women at low risk and 24.7% of women at high risk. The mean lifetime risk of breast cancer was found to be 13.4, with 64.7% of women at low risk, 30.3% at moderate risk, and 5.0% at high risk. The results show that geographically Baghdad presented the highest 5-year risk, followed by Dhi Qar, Maysan, and Nineveh. However, the highest lifetime risk was found in Najaf, followed by Dhi Qar, Baghdad, and Nineveh, successively. CONCLUSION: Breast cancer is a wide-spreading problem in the world and particularly in Iraq, with Gail Model estimations of high risk in several governorates. Prevention programs need to be implemented and awareness campaigns organized in order to highlight the importance of early detection and treatment.

Yemen's triple emergency: Food crisis amid a civil war and COVID-19 pandemic.

Yemen has been termed as the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations. About 20.1 million (more than 50% of population) Yemenis are facing hunger and 10 million are severely food insecure according to reports by the World Food Programme. With the spread of COVID-19, the situation in Yemen has worsened and humanitarian aid from other countries has become the basis of life for hundreds of thousands of Yemenis after the threat of famine. Yemen is practically one of the poorest countries in the world. It has structural vulnerabilities that have developed over a protracted period of conflict and poor governance and more than 50% live in starving, they suffer for getting one meal a day. To prevent a total collapse of Yemen's food crises, the government and the international community should act now more decisively.

The Hajj and COVID-19: How the Pandemic Shaped the World's Largest Religious Gathering.

The Hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, is held in Saudi Arabia in the second week of Dhu'l-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the world's largest mass gatherings, constituting more than 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims from more than 180 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant public health threat for such mass gatherings. Thus, a health risk assessment for the 2020 Hajj was held by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gatherings Medicine, which concluded that foreign pilgrims should be excluded from the 2020 Hajj and that the number of pilgrims should be significantly reduced. Timely decisions allowed the Saudi government to conduct the Hajj, despite an initial postponement. However, the number of pilgrims was significantly downscaled, and extensive new protocols were set in place because of the pandemic. This article aims to shed light on the challenges faced and efforts made by Saudi Arabia to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during the religious proceedings of the Hajj.

Drug supply shortage in Nigeria during COVID-19: efforts and challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in massive disruptions in global supply chains. Nigeria is particularly vulnerable with respect to pharmaceuticals since there is reduced local production and about 70% of the drug supply is imported creating a huge supply-demand disparity particularly in times like COVID-19. Nigeria is in need of huge quantities of quality-assured health commodities to effectively respond to the pandemic. Significant shortages of other essential medicines and medical products across the country could be imminent. Drug scarcity in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic period is because of several accumulated factors, majorly as a result of global lockdown, decreased manufacturing, unaddressed regulatory affairs, poor access to resources by the population, lack of buffer stocks, security instability, and poor funding of the healthcare system. This situation if left unattended, could cause serious drawbacks to the health of the populace as well as the quality of life of Nigerians amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. Appropriate measures should be directed to ensure ethical processes on drug production, importation, pricing, and distribution to avoid such events during unavoidable scenarios, like the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies.